text:
Focused Profiles on Jazz and its Creators while also Featuring the Work of Guest Writers and Critics on the Subject of Jazz.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Thelonious Sphere Monk 1917 - 1982
Posted by Steven Cerra at 2:54 PM
Thelonious Monk: Part 2
"The George Washington of Bebop"
(September 1947-August 1948) …. Part 2
On the subject of researching and writing his book on Monk, Robin D.G. Kelley closes his work by stating:
"If I've learned anything from this fourteen-year adventure, it is that duplicating Monk's sound has never been the point. 'Play yourself," he'd say. 'Play yourself' lay at the core of Monk's philosophy; he understood it as art's universal injunction. He demanded originality in others and embodied it in everything he did – in his piano technique, in his dress, in his language, his humor, in the way he danced, in the way he loved his family and raised his children, and above all in his compositions. Original did not mean being different for the hell of it. For Monk, to be original meant reaching higher than one's limits, striving for something startling and memorable, and never being afraid to make mistakes. Originality is not always mastery, nor does it always yield success. But it is very hard work." [p.451]
You know, anybody can play a composition like 'Body and Soul' and use far-out chords and make it sound wrong. It's making it sound right that's not easy. - Monk
© -Robin D. G. Kelley, reproduced with permission. Copyright protected; all rights reserved.
Here is the continuation and conclusion of Robin D.G. Kelley's tenth chapter from his comprehensive and authoritative book on Thelonious Monk's life, times and music.
The editorial staff would once again like to express its appreciation to Professor Kelley for permission to feature this selection from his excellent book on JazzProfiles.
By way of differentiation, unlike the photographic images that were used in Part 1 of this presentation which were of the time period that forms the chapter's chronological focus, some of those appearing in this second segment are from images taken later in Monk's life.
Throughout his career, Monk was a fascinating photographic subject and the many intriguing images of him form a perfect complement to his captivating and absorbing music. The photographic lenses of such artists as William Claxton, Bob Parent, Chuck Stewart, Lee Tanner and Francis Wolff, among others, certainly thought that this was the case.
" became the year Thelonious Monk was invented. In fewer than two hundred words, Lorraine Lion—building on William Gottlieb—established the lens through which the entire world would come to see Monk. Elusive, mysterious, strange, eccentric, weird, genius—these were the foundational adjectives that formed the caricature of Monk. It was Lion who dubbed Thelonious the "High Priest of Bebop,"57 re-presenting him to jazz audiences as a kind of mystic. His reputation for lateness, unreliability, and drunkenness only added to his image as an eccentric, as did stories of his sleeplessness and nocturnal adventures in search of someone's piano to play. Neither Lion nor Gottlieb nor anyone else seems to have considered that these episodes, or his fits of obsessive creativity, could have been early signs of manic depression. Monk's behavior was weird and made good copy. Blue Note's marketing campaign marked the beginning of Monk's iconization, his transformation into what critic Nat Hentoff called "a stock cartoon figure for writers of Sunday supplement pieces about the exotica of jazz." Monk became a novelty, marketed to the public for his strangeness—his name, his music, his bodily gestures, his famous non-verbal communication, his unpredictability. "Pictures of Monk in dark glasses and goatee," Hentoff later observed, "would usually be captioned 'Mad Monk' or 'The High Priest of Bop.' Exaggerated stories of his personal life were the 'substance' of the articles. There was no attempt to discuss the nature or seriousness of his musical intentions. Monk became part of the Sabbath sideshow of resurrected murderers, celebrated divorce cases, and Elsa Maxwell."58
Lion scored a huge coup when she convinced Ralph Ingersoll, the silk-stocking Communist and founding editor of the liberal newsmagazine PM, to run a lengthy profile of Thelonious in February of 1948.59 Ingersoll assigned the piece to arts and culture critic Ira Peck. Peck wasn't really a jazz guy so much as a very smart dabbler in the arts. 60 As a feature writer for PM for the last five years, Peck had not yet encountered anyone like Monk. At their initial meeting in Monk's apartment, Thelonious said so little that Peck was ready to abandon the project, until Lorraine Lion insisted that she be present for the interview.61 Monk eventually opened up, offering honest criticism and bold claims about his contribution to the music, but not much else. Much of Peck's story consisted of detailed descriptions of Monk's apartment, commentary from friends, acquaintances, and critics of the new music, and, unsurprisingly, Blue Note press material. Before he could talk about Monk, however, Peck had to make the case for bebop as high art, particularly for a readership more accustomed to opera, symphonies, and art museums than modern jazz. He opened with the acknowledgment that critics "have called [bebop] a kind of 'surrealist' jazz and have drawn analogies between it and the works of Picasso and Dali. Musically, it has been likened to the works of Stravinsky, whom most be-bop musicians are known to admire." After emphasizing its dissonant sonorities and the "breakneck pace" of its rhythms, he went on to quote classical pianist Eugene List, who said "Be-bop is to jazz ... as atonality is to classical music. It uses the enlarged harmony structure of jazz but is more cerebral than emotional. I like it. Any intellectual exercise in music is fun if you want to take your mind off anything. I wish I could play first-rate be-bop."62 Monk himself reinforced Peck and List's characterization of modern jazz by making a spirited case for experimental music in opposition to "commercial jazz." Bebop's detractors, Monk argued, "don't understand the music and in most cases never heard it. Weird means something you never heard before. It's weird until people get around to it. Then it ceases to be weird." "It's the modern music of today," he added. "It makes other musicians think—just like Picasso. It has to catch on."63
Without elaborating on the music, however, Peck falls back on Lion's familiar description of Monk's odd behavior. He hardly sleeps, eats when he feels like it, "wanders around from one friend's house to another, or from one club to another, working out his ideas on the piano," and still lives at home with his mother. For this part of the story, Peck reused the testimony of Teddy Hill. While acknowledging his genius, Hill described him as "undependable," adding that "Monk ... is so absorbed in his music he appears to have lost touch with everything else." Hill claimed Monk could barely hold a conversation without his mind wandering and that he was known to forget his girlfriend in the club. Peck's portrait also relied on anonymous friends. One "friend" described a "girl that idolizes him," lighting his cigarettes and whatnot, but in whom Monk showed very little interest. "He tells me that women are a 'heckle' sometimes. He doesn't want to be tied down to anything except his music." The woman in question lived in Monk's building and dropped by "frequently to clean his room and wash his dishes."64 The anonymous informant may have been speaking of Marion, who was still living in the Phipps Houses a couple of doors down, and came by often to help her mother by straightening up.65 For Nellie, it must have been a difficult thing to read.
For all the anecdotes and extravagant description, the story never lost its core theme: Monk was bebop's true originator. This time Monk sheepishly accepted the idea. He told Peck that the new music "just happened. I just felt it. It came to me. Something was being created differently without my trying to." He explained that what Dizzy and Bird were playing in 1948 was not what he originally worked out at Minton's. Monk spoke candidly about not getting much recognition but admitted, "I don't get around as much. . . . I'm sort of underground in bebop." And he added that one of his biggest problems was finding musicians capable of playing his songs. Teddy Hill was quoted again: "Monk seemed more like the guy who manufactured the product rather than commercialized it. Dizzy has gotten all the exploitation because Dizzy branched out and got started. Monk stayed right in the same groove."66
Although it seems unlikely that Lorraine Lion or these journalists intended to pit Monk against Gillespie, some tension did exist between them, or at least some competition over their respective narratives of bebop's origins. Just a few weeks before the PM article appeared, Dizzy announced that he was writing a book on bebop with the assistance of Leonard Feather. The article appeared in the black-owned California Eagle, and it characterized Gillespie as "the creator of this newest jazz idiom."67
In the end, Monk and the Blue Note crew were pleased with the article. Miss Barbara was not. She was quite upset with Peck's colorful, yet degrading, description of her apartment—not to mention the accompanying photograph. He wrote about how her soot-darkened walls and worn-down linoleum "contrasted incongruously with a large new, shiny white refrigerator." As a proud, dignified Southern black woman, such language was embarrassing. Her complaints to
fell on deaf ears, largely because Lorraine could not understand the deeply ingrained sense of modesty and pride working-class black women possessed. For women who made a living cleaning other people s houses and offices, keeping a clean and orderly house of their own took on great importance.68 Lorraine simply dismissed her concerns and practically chastised her for failing to recognize the importance of such publicity: "Look, Mrs. Monk. Your son is going to be very famous. This is just the beginning. You will have to get used to this."69 Lorraine
Lorraine Lion sent out another round of press kits just in time for the release of Monk's second 78 (Blue Note 543), with "Well, You Needn't" and "'Round ." The Lions had the bright idea to invite a select group of writers to a party at their
Greenwich Village apartment to listen to the test pressings of the latest disc. Among the invitees was the new managing editor of The Record Changer, Orrin Keepnews. He had been hired by Bill Grauer, his former classmate, who had purchased the record collectors' newsletter in order to turn it into a first-rate, modern jazz magazine. A native New Yorker, Keepnews earned a bachelor's degree in English from Columbia University in 1943, served in the Pacific theater as a radar operator on B-29 bombers, then returned to school to pursue a graduate degree. To make ends meet, he took a job as a junior editor at Simon & Schuster. When he took over the editorship of The Record Changer, he was still working and going to school. But he could not resist the chance to write about what he loved—jazz.70 Columbia
The Lions had read Keepnews's first column with great interest, and they had heard about him from their friend Paul Bacon, whom Grauer had hired as the magazine's artistic director. They thought that if Keepnews could only meet Thelonious he might be persuaded to write a piece on their newest artist. "I took the bait and swallowed it whole," Keepnews confessed. "And with the arrogance of ignorance I took Monk off into a corner and proceeded to do an interview with him." He was told he couldn't get a complete sentence out of the High Priest, but he did. "I had a lovely time talking to him, frankly."71
The article, which appeared in the April issue of The Record Changer, actually focused on the music, not Monk's eccentricities or behavior. Rather than fold Monk into the bebop school, Keepnews argued that his approach to modern piano, particularly in an ensemble context, was in a class of its own. He had his own school, so to speak, anchored in a strong rhythmic style and possessed of "a sly, wry, satiric humor that has a rare maturity." He wasn't too impressed with Monk's horn players (except for Danny Quebec West), whom he found "too steeped in standard bebop; their solos sometimes fail to follow the complex pattern being established by the rhythm unit, and the ensembles tend, on occasion, to fall into standard bop cliches."72 Nevertheless, Keepnews found more musicality and coherence in Monk's recordings than in most modern jazz. Monks music "has a feeling of unity, warmth, and purpose that contrasts sharply with the emotionless, jittered-up pyrotechnics of
Fifty-Second Street 'modernism.'" Keepnews did get a few things wrong: he places Monk at Minton's in 1938; has him recording with Hawkins in 1940 rather than 1944; and puts him on the road with Hawk for two years, "which meant that he was not on hand during the period when 'bebop' . . . was first being stylized and strongly plugged."73 Still, for an impromptu hour-long conversation in the corner of a room with a stranger, Keepnews accomplished a lot.
Besides contacting the jazz press, Lorraine Lion made a concerted effort to reach out to the black press. Most publications turned her down, including a fairly new but widely circulated photo magazine called Ebony.74 The Pittsburgh Courier took the bait, running virtually the entire press release with Lorraine Lion's byline (except for the paragraph describing Monk as mysterious, absorbed, and "shy and elusive").75 Dan Burley of the Amsterdam News reproduced many of the same references to Monk's "aura of mystery" and his elusive behavior, while playing up the rivalry between Dizzy and Thelonious over who deserves credit for originating bebop. Burley minces no words: "Off Thelonious' groundwork, commercial-minded lads constructed a money empire and brought bebop to the public. But Thelonious has always remained in the shadows of obscurity and while others rise to fame and fortune, he has to struggle as best he can to get along."76
The Chicago Defender also bought Lion's story about Monk's eccentricity, and they accepted the claim that Thelonious was the real progenitor of bebop. Rather than run the press release verbatim, the editors sent their
correspondent to Thelonious's house to get the scoop on the "Creator of 'Bebop.'" Remarkably, Monk talked a lot. For whatever reason, he shared his opinions fully and freely. First, he took issue with the name bebop. "I don't like to think of my music as bebop—but as modern music. I don't dig the word. It doesn't mean anything, it's just scatting like hi-de-hi-de-ho or se-bop-baty-iou." Second, he took issue with the music itself, suggesting that what often was labeled bebop lacked coherence, pretty melodies, and a strong, swinging beat—all qualities he believed were essential to good music. "I like the music to sound melodious. . . . People have to know harmony. It's harder for people to understand bebop who don't know music." He adds, "Everybody has a different conception of melody. That's why some music is prettier than other [sic]. You should always have melody in the piece." And rhythm. "I play with a swing beat. But everything's got a beat, you live by beats—the beat of your heart. If your heart stops beating that's curtains."77 Monk was sure of the impact he'd made on modern jazz: "I hear a lot of my influence in modern music." He complained that "The public hasn't been hearing the right music," but continued to hope that "By listening and paying attention, [the public] can tell the difference between good and bad music. They'll dig. They'll learn."78 New York
In many ways, it was a remarkable interview. Monk was clear, coherent, assertive, even witty. But when the issue of his love life came up, Monk was evasive once again. Perhaps protecting Nellie's privacy or his own, he was emphatic about his bachelor status, announcing that he had no plans to marry and was patiently waiting for "a beautiful millionaire woman." Whether or not Nellie laughed it off or was genuinely nervous about their future, Thelonious was suddenly getting a lot of attention and exhibited, at least on the page, a slightly inflated sense of self. And in fact there were a few millionaire women in search of their own "High Priest of Bebop." But Nellie had been waiting too long not to consider the possibility of matrimony.
Meanwhile, Monk continued to make a name for himself. On February 16, Monk's quartet (Sulieman, Blakey, and bassist Curley Russell) participated in radio station WNYC's Ninth Annual "American Music Program." Surprisingly, during the fourteen-minute broadcast, the group did not play any of Thelonious's compositions.79 The following month, Thelonious returned to Minton's Playhouse, now as a money-earning bandleader.80 It had been years since he was on the payroll. Teddy Hill was now the co-owner, Eddie "Lockjaw"
oversaw the Monday night sessions as musical director, and Monk's band—with Sahib Shihab, Al McKibbon, and Blakey—was the main attraction. Sometimes Idrees Sulieman joined the group, or Ike Quebec or Danny Quebec West showed up. These became Monk's stable of musicians, the artists who knew the music and could keep up with him. Davis
Growing fame did not always guarantee ideal performing conditions. On April 30, he and some friends from the neighborhood, calling themselves the "San Juan Hill Association," rented the Golden Gate Ballroom on 142nd and Lenox Avenue in Harlem and organized a concert featuring Monk. The publicity billed Thelonious as "The High Priest of Be-Bop." They brought the popular "MacBeth the Great and his Calypso Serenadors" to open for Monk's group, which consisted of Sulieman, both
, Curley Russell, and Blakey. For a mere buck and a half, dancers could enjoy not only virtually nonstop music from to , but they could meet the lovely "Miss San Juan Hill," winner of the recent neighborhood beauty pageant.81 Quebecs
The event attracted a decent turnout.
Harlem and Brooklyn's West Indian community came out in droves to hear MacBeth's raucous performances of "Man Smart, Woman Smarter" and "Hold 'Em Joe." But there were glitches when Monk's group took the bandstand. Sitting at the Golden Gate's old grand piano, Monk found a dead key while the band was tuning up. No problem; he had had his share of dead keys and broken strings. But then he noticed that the pedal post was falling apart. Every time he hit the sustain pedal it jiggled uncomfortably. Once the band hit, the pedal got worse. A few choruses into the first song, Monk decided it had to go. He reached down to rip it out with one hand, while continuing to play with the other. When that didn't work, he bent down farther and applied both hands to the post. As Paul Bacon observed, "There was a slight crack, a ripping sound, and off came the whole works, to be flung aside as Monk calmly resumed playing." By the time the pianist for MacBeth returned for another set, he was a little thrown off by the sudden reconfiguration of the piano.82 The dancers didn't care; MacBeth still rocked the house.
Monk's road to fame felt longer and more treacherous once the reviews appeared. Down Beat's reviewer gave Monks first disc only two stars each for "Thelonious" and "Suburban Eyes." He wrote, "On his own solo spots, there seem to be points at which Monk is thinking about the stock returns or the seventh at Pimlico—anything but his piano. He also has several passages where he plays straight striding Waller piano. As a modernist, this can hardly be excused. All present-day piano players have right hands with eight fingers and a rigid claw on the left hand. . . . From the Monk we expect better."83 The reviewer for Metronome concurred, dismissing "Thelonious" with a letter-grade of "C," in part because he plays "an ancient piano style" (i.e., stride). "Suburban Eyes" scored a slightly higher grade of C+, largely due to the strength of Sulieman, Danny Quebec West, and Billy Smith, but "Monk's piano nullifies this capable trio's efforts."8'
The second disc, with "Well, You Needn't" and " 'Round ," did not fare much better. The review in Down Beat said, "The Monk is undoubtedly a man of considerable ability both technically and harmonically but his abstractions on these sides are just too too—and I played them early in the morning and late at night. 'Needn't' doesn't require a Juilliard diploma to understand, but '' is for the super hip alone. Why they list the personnel on a side where the whole band plays like a vibra-toless organ under the piano solo is a mystery."85 Billboard proved more sympathetic, though the magazine's witty one-liners can hardly be called reviews. About "Thelonious," for example, this is all the reviewer wrote: "Grandaddy of the beboppers, pianist Monk turns out a controversial jazz disking worked out on one tone riff." Using a rating system ranging from 0 to 100, the Billboard reviewer gave "Thelonious" a 68 and "Suburban Eyes" 67.86
The most sympathetic review to appear that spring was written by someone whose authority could have easily been questioned: Paul Bacon. Bacon, after all, was friends with the Lions and had worked for Blue Note when Monk was recording with them. And he had befriended Monk, seeing him often at Minton's Playhouse and sometimes hanging out with him a little between sets.87 On the other hand, the jazz world was so incestuous that it wasn't uncommon for record producers to review recordings— sometimes even their own projects.88 Bacon was a real fan and a careful listener. In a lengthy review of the second disc for The Record Changer, he assigns Monk a central role in shaping the direction of modern music, despite the fact that his unorthodox style had cost him jobs. Bacon believed Monk's strengths lay in his use of space, his conception of rhythm ("Monk has a beat like ocean waves—no matter how sudden, spasmodic or obscure, his little inventions, he rocks irresistibly on"), and his ability to draw on the history of music in unpredictable ways. "He plays riffs that are older than Bunk Johnson," Bacon wrote, "but they don't sound the same; his beat is familiar but he does something strange there, too—he can make a rhythm seem almost separate, so that what he does is inside it, or outside it. He may play for a space in nothing but smooth phrases and then suddenly jump on a part and repeat it with an intensity beyond description."89
All the good press in the world wasn't enough to sell records.
could not sell Monk. Downtown record stores were a bust because "they thought he lacked technique."90 She had no luck in Lorraine Harlem, either. She lugged boxes of 78s uptown, but "the guys in those record stores would say, 'He can't play. He has two left hands.'"91 She even traveled the country with her case of 78s, with little success, though she had no trouble selling other Blue Note artists. "I went to Philly, , a whole lineup, Cleveland, Chicago.... I had to battle all the way to get them to buy a Monk record and listen to him."92 Baltimore
But selling records and winning converts is not the same thing. While Monk did nothing for the jazz establishment, the record collectors and Down Beat readers, a growing number of black musicians, writers, and artists heard in Monk's music a distillation of the modern age. Monk found a hearing early on among writers like Ralph Ellison and Langston Hughes, and his Blue Note recordings had a profound effect on a fourteen-year-old Newark kid named LeRoi Jones ("Monk was my main man"93), who was destined to become one of the most important poets of the postwar era. Thelonious inspired visual artists such as Romare Bearden and Norman Lewis, who spent many evenings at Minton's and heard in Monk the musical equivalent of abstract expressionism.94 The clearest manifestation of Monk's importance for self-proclaimed black Modernists is the 1948 publication of Nard Griffins slim volume, To Be or Not to Bop. A little-known
Harlem writer who gained some notoriety as a jazz critic, set out to give the new music intellectual legitimacy while defusing the pitched battles between boppers and traditionalists. Rejecting the term "bebop" in favor of "the New Listen" or "the new movement in modern music," Griffin identified Monk, along with Bird and Diz, as one of its founding fathers. He called Monk "one of the more progressive minded men in music.... He too has contributed much to modern jazz and offers something new and different in piano work."95 Monk and the emerging generation of modernists had created an art form that served as a metaphor for the modern age: "The next decade or so will bring about an even greater transfiguration, thus coinciding music with other developments of the period. In this day of atomic progress, jet propulsion, and many seemingly fantastic inventions and ideas, such as rockets and 'the new look' there can be no wonder that a new and dynamic idea in music is offered in the guise of BeBop."96 Griffin
Monk probably saw
's book, as it made the rounds among black musicians in Griffin Harlem. (He may have even teased Dizzy years later for stealing the title for his own memoir!) But the assessment that mattered most was beyond reach of his eyes and ears. During the summer of 1948, while Duke Ellington's band was traveling by train in the southern coast of , trumpeter Ray Nance decided to pass the time away by listening to records on a little portable phonograph he had picked up. "I put on one of my Thelonious Monk records. Duke was passing by in the corridor, and he stopped and asked, 'Who's that playing?' I told him. 'Sounds like he's stealing some of my stuff,' he said. So he sat down and listened to my records, and he was very interested. He understood what Monk was doing."97 England
Meanwhile, 1948 was turning out to be Monks busiest year since he left Hawkins. When his stint at Minton's ended, Monte Kay offered him a short gig at a club he was managing called the Royal Roost. In its past life, the Roost was a nondescript chicken joint on Broadway and
West 47th Street, but once Monte Kay took over, it became "the Metropolitan Bopera House," or the "House that Bop Built." Bird, Dizzy, Lester Young, and Tadd Dameron were among the featured artists, and "Symphony Sid" Torin, the celebrated jazz dj, was the master of ceremonies. The Roost attracted a younger crowd (it even had a milk bar for teens) and was all about the music. Patrons not interested in drinking could pay ninety cents to sit in bleacher seats. It had no dance floor, no fancy revues, just bebop.98 Thelonious led several sessions at the Roost during part of May and June with a band that included Milt Jackson and bassists John Simmons and Curley Russell. Dozens of musicians sat in, from Bird to tenor saxophonist Wardell Gray." Although later sessions with Tadd Dameron, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bird were broadcast from the Royal Roost, none of Monk's sessions received airplay, something about which he would grumble in later years.
Many Roost regulars were still unaccustomed to Monks style. Even some of the musicians didn't know what to do with him. Bassist John Simmons couldn't follow Monk when they first started working together. "He played between the keys, he played against the meter, and he would just play all over the piano, you know. It wasn't anything you could follow. If you didn't know the tune, you couldn't play with him. Now, if you're playing by ear, you had to listen to the melodic line. So I trained my ears to listening to Bags, you know, Milt Jackson. I'd just throw Monk out of my ear. I just closed my ears to him completely." When that didn't work, Simmons turned to cocaine, reefer, and Seagram's VO: "I was resorting to this to try to get way spaced out to keep up with Monk, and I couldn't catch him... ."100
Largely because of his association with the Roost and with Symphony Sid's "bebop all-stars," Monk was invited to play a benefit for
in Sydenham Hospital Harlem held on June 9. It was the first of many benefit concerts he would participate in. Sydenham had been struggling for some time, facing severe financial shortfalls, made worse by the resignation of its director. The administration scrambled to pull together several emergency fundraisers just to keep its doors open.101 Nat "King" Cole, one of Monk's favorite pianists, headlined the star-studded event. Besides the usual suspects (Bird, Miles Davis, Tadd Dameron, Max Roach), some of the more prominent participants included comedians Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, and Zero Mostel, the famous dance duo the Nicholas Brothers, Jimmie Lunceford's band, and singer Thelma Carpenter. Monk brought his own sextet—Sulieman, both , Curley Russell, and Blakey—though given the number of artists on the bill, they probably only performed a couple of tunes. Still, it was a special night for Thelonious, not because of who was there but where they played: the event was held at Quebecs , Nellie's Central Needle Trades High School mater.102 alma
On Monday, June 28, while Monk was leaving the Roost after his last Sunday night set, police rolled up on him and discovered a small bag of marijuana in his possession. He was arrested, held in the Tombs overnight, and arraigned.103 Marijuana possession, which had been outlawed by the federal government eleven years earlier, was considered a misdemeanor in New York State.104 Between Monk's meager income and contributions from Sonny, Geraldine, and Nellie, they were able to raise the modest bail money; he was released the next day to await a trial date. Misdemeanor or not, possession of reefer was punishable by a fine of up to $500 and/or imprisonment "not exceeding one year."105 He also faced unemployment: The Roost never let him come back.
According to Nellie, Monk's arrest and his consequent joblessness were no accident. She insisted that the management—in this instance, Monte Kay—had set Thelonious up because they wanted to replace him.106 Though the evidence is purely circumstantial, if the Roost wanted to get rid of Monk, his arrest came at a convenient time. Monte Kay found Monk's music interesting and had worked with him on and off since Monk's time with Hawkins at the Down Beat Club. But he still saw Monk as a "troubled guy and not too reliable."107 Regardless of what really went down the morning of June 28, the consequences proved disastrous.
Three days following his release from jail, Monk was back in the studio for another Blue Note session, despite the current recording ban called by the AFM.108 His commitment to the label was unshakable. Blue Note was preparing to release another 78 from the fall '47 sessions—"Off Minor" and "Evonce"—and the Lions felt he needed more music in the can. Frustrated by their inability to sell Monk's records, they decided to try something different. First, they included Milt Jackson as a featured artist on the date.
had begun to gain a bit of a following as a soloist with Dizzy Gil-lespie and Howard McGhee, and in the spring of 1948 he briefly formed his own band with John Lewis and Jackson Kenny Clarke.109 Jackson was a crowd favorite; his solos swung hard and seemed to lift the audience. Second, Blue Note and Monk decided to add a couple of vocal numbers. Monk hired crooner Kenny "Pancho" Hagood, whom he knew and performed with when they both were in Dizzy Gillespie's big band in 1946. Monk even changed the rhythm section, bringing John Simmons, the bassist from the Royal Roost, and drummer Rossiere "Shadow" Wilson. Neither Simmons nor Wilson was strongly identified with bebop, but both artists were incredibly versatile and had worked with swing bands representing different eras. Simmons recorded with everyone, from James P. Johnson and Big Sid Catlett to Ben Webster, Billie Holiday, and Coleman Hawkins.110 Wilson was best known for his work with the Count Basic Orchestra, though he also played with Lionel Hampton, Benny Carter, and Earl Hines.111 For whatever reason, Monk was looking for a change, and he put together a more mature band. Everyone in the quartet had an established reputation and a fairly long resume, although Monk was still the elder of the group.
Monk's choice of swing-era veterans and modernists paid off. The band cut six sides in nine takes, two of which were new compositions: "Evidence," based on the changes from "Just You, Just Me," was still being composed when Monk first recorded, and it's a stripped-down version of what the song will become. "Misterioso," the other new tune, was Monk's only twelve-bar blues to date. The band also updated a couple of older Monk compositions: the Minton's theme song "Epistrophy" and "I Mean You." Both songs are radical departures from earlier recordings by Cootie Williams and Coleman Hawkins, respectively. They are more angular and dissonant, and Monk's accents on "I Mean You" are more off-center without losing a sense of swing. He brilliantly echoes
's interpretation of the opening theme and plays countermelodies so jarring and unusual that they overwhelm the melody. Jackson
If Wolff and the Lions thought the addition of a couple of vocal numbers might make Monk more palatable to a popular audience, they were wrong. Monk wasn't backing a singer for a house band; he was leading his own recording session, trying to make music on his own terms. His reading of the standards "All the Things You Are" and "I Should Care" with
Kenny "Pancho" Hagood were startling. Monk and Jackson create a dense chaos of lush, dissonant fills that threaten to overwhelm Hagood, who had enough trouble trying to stay in tune. The effect is as if Monk and Jackson are having a bizarre conversation behind Hagood's back, and their harmonically adventurous figures not only crash into each other but strip these songs of romanticism, investing them with humor.112 But if Jackson and Monk had fun, Hagood did not. Always the task master, Thelonious made Hagood sing "I Should Care" out of his range, despite his protestations. According to John Simmons, "Pancho's throat was sore for a week. Couldn't get him to sing a note. He hurt himself."113
All the songs on the date, particularly Monk's musical dialogues with Milton Jackson, exemplify Monk's characteristic parallel voices, collective improvisation, and layering of melodic lines and countermelodies. In these and other recordings, he invents countermelodies, incorporates arpeggios (outlining chords in single notes, often emphasizing the most dissonant tonalities), and plays many different "runs" down the piano—particularly runs built on whole-tone scales. Monk, in other words, conceived of the piano as an orchestral instrument. He thought in multiple lines—two, three, even four—and played independent rhythmic lines with his left and right hands. It was a key to Monk as a composer, improviser, and arranger—three components of making music that he treated as inseparable.114 For Monk, the composition was not just the melody but the entire performance. He had little interest in "blowing sessions." Even when musicians were improvising together, he expected a level of orchestration that would sustain the essential elements of the piece.
Thelonious left the studio on a high. It seemed like nothing could bring him down—neither the fact that he was looking at a possible drug conviction and jail time, that he was jobless, nor that his bosses at the Royal Roost chose Tadd Dameron, a pianist Monk believed "really couldn't play . . . couldn't finger nothing, hardly,"115 to lead the house band. The feeling didn't last very long, however. A few days after the session, someone handed Thelonious a copy of the latest New Yorker magazine with Richard Boyer's piece on "Bop." It was a strange article—a publicity vehicle for Dizzy, a sensational and inaccurate expose of bebop, and a provocation. The article positioned Monk and Dizzy as adversaries, labeling Gillespie the "Abraham Lincoln of jazz" (against Monk's "George Washington") for his role in freeing the music "from a weak banality" of swing and "irregular rhythm and strange new chord combinations."116 Boyer called into question the publicity Monk received proclaiming him the progenitor of the music. "There are devotees of bebop music," he wrote, "who believe that the Monk, as Thelonious is sometimes called, had more to do with the origin of bebop than Dizzy did." He added, "There is a certain coolness between the two men, and their relations are rather formal."117 He even raised doubts as to who between them initiated the beret, sunglasses, and goatee.
Boyer's caricature of Monk is at times flattering and at others silly or degrading. He describes Monk (who was approaching his thirty-first birthday) as "a somber, scholarly twenty-one-year-old Negro with a bebop beard, who played piano with a sacerdotal air, as if the keyboard were an altar and he an acolyte." To add to the pretensions of the portrait, Boyer attributes the following quote to Thelonious: "We liked Ravel, Stravinsky, Debussy, Prokofieff, Schoenberg... and maybe we were a little influenced by them."1 ] If the quote is authentic, it was undoubtedly a response to a leading question—e.g., did Stravinsky or modern composers influence the development of modern jazz? Boyer even claims that Monk declared himself Arab. "Thelonious sometimes forgets that he was born on
West Sixty-third Street and announces that he is a native of ."11 It's hard to imagine what questions would have elicited that one. Damascus
What hurt Monk most, however, was the reminder that for all his hard work, for all the press he had received, for all the gigs he had cobbled together, for all the recording sessions and requisite rehearsals, for all the sidemen too green or too lazy to play his music correctly, he was broke and Dizzy was rich. The article reported that Dizzy's combined income for 1948 was expected to exceed $25,000, and that over the past eight years he had earned $20,000 in royalties from recording.120
Monk, on the other hand, had no work. He passed the time writing, visiting friends and family—playing checkers, basketball, Ping-Pong, and double-dutch with his nieces and nephews ("He was a good turner," his niece Charlotte recalled 121)— checking in on Nellie, smoking reefer, dropping Benzedrine or "bennies" every once in a while, and preparing for his court date. He also sought out places to play, sitting in wherever he could. On July 11, for example, he dropped by the Onyx Club where Charlie Parker was leading a quintet with Miles Davis, Duke Jordan (piano), Tommy Potter (bass), and Max Roach. With the High Priest in the house,
gave up the piano stool so Monk and the band could blow on his original composition, "Well, You Needn't." Saxophonist and amateur audio documentarian Dean Benedetti was in the audience with his recorder and captured some of Monk and Bird's brief musical dialogue. Monk's comping is so strong and so angular that even Parker gets a little flustered toward the end of the recording.122 But the priest wasn't trying to dethrone the prince. Jordan
On August 31, the case of The State of New York vs. Thelonious Monk finally came on the docket. Despite positive testimony from Monk's closest associates, including Alfred Lion, the judge found him guilty as charged and sentenced him to thirty days in theTombs."123
57 Cuscuna, The Complete Blue Note Recordings, 3.
58 Hentoff, The Jazz Life, 184.
59 Gordon, Alive at the Village Vanguard, 66-67; on Ingersoll, see Roy Hoopes, Ralph Ingersoll: A Biography (New York: Atheneum, 1985).
60 In her memoir, Gordon refers to "Seymour Peck" when she actually meant Ira.
was Ira's older brother and a more prominent literary figure on the Seymour scene. He also wrote for PM and became a major drama critic and editor for the New York Times Arts and Leisure section (after surviving a bout of Red-baiting during the McCarthy period). He was killed in a car accident in 1985. Ira Peck followed his older brother's path, writing drama, film, and television criticism for the New York Times, as well as juvenile biography and history for Scholastic. See Herbert Mitgang, "Seymour Peck: Times Editor for 32 Years, Killed in Crash," New York Times, New York January 2,1985; "Ira Peck," Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2002, http://galenet.galegroup.com.
61 Gordon, Alive at the Village Vanguard, 66—67. Surprisingly, Peck never once mentions the fact that she is present during the interview.
Peck, "The Piano Man," 7.
Ibid., 7.
Ibid., 7.
Alonzo White, interview,
February 23, 2004.
Peck, "The Piano Man," 7.
"Dizzy Writing Book on Be-Bop,"
Eagle, California February 5, 1948.
See for example Tera Hunter's brilliant book, To 'Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors after the Civil War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997).
69 Gordon, Alive at the Village Vanguard, 68; see also, Course, Straight, No Chaser, 55.
70 Jesse Hamlin, "A Life in Jazz,"
College Today (November 2004), www.college.columbia.edu/cct/ nov04/features2.php; Keepnews, The View from Within, 7. Columbia
71 Quoted in Rob Tocalino, "Keepnews and Monk: A Shared Legacy," 8th Annual SF Spring Season—Official Program Book (SFJazz, 2007), 7; see also, Keepnews, The View from Within, 108.
72 Orrin Keepnews, "Thelonious Monk's Music May Be First Sign of Bebop's Legitimacy," Record Changer 7, no. 4 (April 1948), 5; reprinted in Orrin Keepnews, The View From Within, 111.
73 Keepnews, "Thelonious Monk's Music," 20.
74 Ben Burns, Executive Editor of Ebony Magazine to Lorraine Lion, March 25,1948, Blue Note Archives, Capitol Records.
Lion, "Thelonious Monk Deserves Credit for Gifts to Jazz," Lorraine Courier, Pittsburgh February 14,1948.
76 Dan Burley, "Thelonious Monk and His Bebop,"
News, Amsterdam February 21,1948.
77 "Creator of 'Be bop' Objects to Name and Changes in His Style," Chicago Defender,
March 27,1948.
78 Ibid.
79 "The News of Radio," New York Times,
February 2, 1948; Sidney Lohman, "Radio Row: One Thine or Another," New York Times, February 8, 1948. They performed two standards: "Just You, Just Me," and "Allthe Things You Are," and Ike Quebec's "Suburban Eyes.' The broadcast was released on Thelonious Monk and Art Tatum, The Vibes are On (Chazzer 2002).
80 The Executive Committee did not get around to approving Monk's contract with Mintons until
May 6,1948. Minutes of the Executive Board, June 3, 1948, AFM Local 802, reel 5276. This may mean the gig was later than March.
New York News, Amsterdam April 24,1948.
82 Paul Bacon, "The High Priest of Be-bop: The Inimitiable Mr. Monk," Record Changer 8, no. 11 (November, 1949), 9-10.
83 Down Beat (February 25,1948), 19.
84 Metronome (April 1948), 45-46.
85 Down Beat (April 21,1948), 19.
86 Billboard (February 21,1948), 117.
87 Paul Bacon interview,
July 30,2001.
88 See John Gennari, Blowin' Hot and Cool: Jazz and Its Critics (
: Chicago Press, 2006). University of Chicago
89 Paul Bacon," 'Round About ,' 'Well, You Needn't,'" Record Changer, 1, no. 5 (May 1948), 18.
90 Cuscusna, The Complete Blue Note Recordings, 4.
91 Lorraine Gordon quoted in Course, Straight, No Chaser, 53.
92 Ibid., 53.
93 Amiri Baraka, The Autobiography of LeRoiJones/Amiri Baraka (New York: Freundlich Books, 1984), 139.
94 Both Norman Lewis and Romare Bearden have talked about how modern jazz influenced abstract expressionism. For Lewis, 1948-1949 marked his embrace of a kind of bebop-influenced abstraction. See his "Jazz Band" (1948) and "
Harlem at the Gate"(1949). See Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson, A History of African American Artists from 1792 to the Present (New York: Random House, 1993), 168-172. See also, Robin D. G. Kelley, "Breaking the Color Bind: A Decade of American Masters," catalogue essay for African American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, X ( : Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2003). New York
95 Nard
, To Be or Not to Bop (New York: Leo Workman, 1948), 5. Griffin
96 Ibid., 2.
97 Ray Nance quoted in Stanley Dance, The World of Duke Ellington (New York: Da Capo Press, 2000, orig., 1970), 139.
98 Shaw, 52ndStreet, 272; Shipton, Groovin' High, 208.
99 According to Chris Sheridan, Monk had two stints at the Roost—May 4—16 (or longer) and June 15—27.
, Brilliant Corners, 355-56. Local 802 approved Monk's contract with the Roost on June 3. Minutes of the Executive Board, Sheridan June 3, 1948, AFM Local 802, reel 5276. Ira Gitler was a frequent patron and he was there the night Wardell Gray sat in with Monk. Ira Gitler interview, August 13, 2007.
100 "Interview with John Simmons, by Patricia Willard," Tapes 1-9, NEA Oral History Project, Washington, D.C., 1977, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, pp. 58-59.
101 "Sydenham Seeks Aid to Bar Closing," New York Times,
March 1,1948; "Sydenham Gets $137,000," NewYork Times, March 8,1948.
News, Amsterdam June 5,1948; New York Times, June 7,1948.
103 Director of FBI to Legat,
(163-2971), cablegram, Tokyo September 3,1970, Thelonious Monk FBI File.
104 The 1937 Marihuana Tax Act made possession or transfer of marijuana illegal throughout the
, though exceptions were made for the pharmaceutical companies, who were required to pay an exorbitant excise tax. Several states had already outlawed marijuana use and possession, notably states in the Southwest where fear of the spread of marijuana was projected onto Mexican workers. Nevertheless, in United States and the rest of the country, the postwar period witnessed heightened policing of drug use and more draconian laws. African-Americans and Latinos, in general, and jazz musicians in particular, were often the target of raids, sting operations, and overall investigations. It is ironic that just four years before Monk's arrest, the LaGuardia Commission released a report challenging the federal bureau of narcotics' claims that marijuana is highly addictive, a source of crime and criminal activity, and is widespread. See H. Wayne Morgan, Drugs in New York : A Social History, 1800-1980 (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1982), 140; Curtis Marez, Drug Wars: The Political Economy of Narcotics ( America : Minneapolis Press, 2004), 131; La Guardia Commission, The Marihuana Problem in the City of University of Minnesota (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Reprint Corp., 1973). New York
105 He was charged under Section 422 of the New York Public Health Law(1941), p. 134, and Section 1751aofthe New York Penal Law (1941), p. 153.
106 Nellie Monk interview,
January 12,2002; also, same story was repeated by Marcellus Green interview, December 31,2003.
Shaw, Arnold Fifty-Second Street, 180.
108 The ban was called partly in response to the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 banning closed shops, sympathy strikes, and secondary boycotts. It not only weakened the bargaining power of all organized labor, but a provision in the act outlawed the AFM's record-royalty fund. Any sort of industry paybacks to unions
that did not involve actual services was deemed illegal under Tart-Hartley. However, when the AFM's recording contracts expired on
January 1, 1948, Petrillo announced the ban. This time the industry was in a strong position, having made and stockpiled many more records than it could release on the market at once. The ban lasted almost a full year, culminating in a small victory for the AFM. To replace the record-royalty fund, the industry agreed to establish a Music Performance Trust Fund that would finance free concerts and pay struggling musicians union scale.
109 This group can be heard on Milt Jackson/Sonny Stitt, In the Beginning (Galaxy XY 204).
110 "Interview with John Simmons, by Patricia Willard," Tapes 1-9, NEA Oral History Project; Johnny Simmen and Barry Kernfeld, "Simmons, John," in The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd ed., edited by Barry Kernfeld, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/ music/J4lOOOO (accessed
February 24,2009).
111 Korall, Drummin' Men, 59-69; Gitler, Jazz Masters of the Forties, 190.
112 All takes can be heard on The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Thelonious Monk.
113 "Interview with John Simmons, by Patricia Willard," Tapes 1-9, NEA Oral History Project, p. 60.
114 I must here acknowledge Milton Stewart, who suggests that Monk developed an "mbira" approach to the piano, in which the left and right hands play rhythmically separate melodies featuring alternating pitches in the middle and bass registers. It produces the effect of two independent instruments being played simultaneously. Milton Stewart, "Thelonious Monk: Bebop or Something Different?" Jazz Research Papers 5 (1985), 182-8^.
115 Les Tomkins interview with Thelonious Monk, 1965.
116 Richard Boyer, "Profiles: Bop," New Yorker (July 3, 1948), 26.
117 Ibid., 29.
118 Ibid., 28.
119 Ibid., 29.
120 Ibid, 31.
121 Charlotte Washington interview,
April 5, 2004.
122 The Complete Dean Benedetti Recordings (Mosaic MR10-129).
123 Subpeona for Alfred W. Lion, People of the State of
vs. Thelonious Monk, called for trial on New York August 31,1948, at 100 Centre Street at , Blue Note Archives.
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text:
Late-2014 figures track positively trending construction market
- Details
- Last Updated: Tuesday, 06 January 2015 18:10
Sources: Associated General Contractors of America, Washington, D.C.; CP staff
Analyzing new federal government data on construction spending through November, AGC confirms that overall 2014 project activity was set to modestly outpace 2013 totals. Figures released January 2 coincide with association members' push for action on a series of federal infrastructure programs, including funding for highway and transit upgrades, plus clean water initiatives.
Read more: Late-2014 figures track positively trending construction market

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text:
Difference between revisions of "Parapat"
Revision as of 14:20, 23 April 2013
Parapat is a small town on the edge of Lake Toba.
Get in
By bus
From Medan there is a local bus (no air-con) about every hour for 22,000 rupiah (Oct 08) if you pay on the bus. The journey takes 4-6 hours, depending on the traffic condition.
By taxi
From Medan:
Get around
10,000 IDR/person to Tuktuk, and to Tomok is 5,000 IDR/person in Tiga Raja jetty; they had other jetty in Ajibata with the same price 5,000 IDR/person to Tomok; just take 30 minutes from Tigaraja Jetty/Ajibata jetty to Tomok or Tuktuk. First boat from Tigaraja Jetty to Tuktuk start from 08.30 AM - 07.00 PM; every hour trip; and to Tomok they had last boat at 07.00 PM.
Welcome to the "River Rafting" Best-3 in The World; Asahan River is a river in North Sumatra which flows from Lake Toba. This river passes Porsea, district Asahan, and ends at Nibung Gulf, the Strait of Malacca. Rivers that have a length of 150 km, also pass through the valleys of the Barisan Mountains. Asahan River especially around the Tangga village, District Bandar Pulau, has a speed of 120 m / sec with grade IV-V + with an average depth 5meter very challenging, especially whitewater rafting enthusiasts. River which is the best rivers for whitewater rafting to 3 has four lines with different difficulties.
Get out


text:
Las Vegas
Viticus Group
Improve orthopaedic outcomes in your hospital
A two-day hands-on educational wet-lab for surgical techniques you can offer in clinic
We're not just selling products, we hold a variety of veterinary orthopaedic workshops and events throughout the year both in the UK and the United States.View Workshops & Events
We have a vast range of support material developed to provide you with tips & techniques which will revolutionise your veterinary surgical techniquesView all Resources
We'll be running the following full day wet-labs which can be booked individually or together for a discounted price
Each workshop is pitched at a level suitable for all veterinary surgeons and general practitioners at every stage of their professional development
Fri, 13 Nov
Full Day
Includes sawbone and cadaver session
Sat, 14 Nov
Full Day
Includes a range of sawbones and cadaver session
Each workshop gives participants the chance to carry out procedures on plastic models or cadavers, under the instruction of highly regarded tutors.
The Modified Maquet Procedure (MMP) is an evolution of the TTA procedure for treatment of lameness due to cranial cruciate failure.
The course is in two parts: a lecture based introduction followed by a practical session using synthetic bone models of the stifle, animations and video support material will also be used. The development of the technique, implants and associated instrumentation will be described and a detailed review of surgical technique and clinical outcomes will cover all aspects of MMP.
The benefits of RidgeStop:
During this session we will cover:
By the end of this course delegates should have an understanding of:
This simple, affordable alternative to sulcoplasty surgery that can be used alone, as the sole treatment for patella luxation, or as an adjunct to re-alignment operations.
The course is in two parts: a lecture based overview of the pathogenesis and treatment selection in patella luxation and a review of current surgical treatment options. This will be followed by an introduction to RidgeStop™, its application and case presentations, before a practical session where delegates will learn to use the RidgeStop™ instrumentation and implants on a synthetic bone model of a stifle.
The benefits of RidgeStop:
During this session we will cover:
By the end of this course delegates should have an understanding of:
The SOP™ is a locking plate system for use in veterinary orthopaedics. Locking plates are powerful and versatile implants but the mechanics and methods of application are significantly different from conventional plate systems.
The course will cover locking plate mechanics, case selection, methods of application as well as modes of failure and a review of the extensive published literature on the SOP™ system.
The benefits of SOP™:
During this session we will cover:
By the end of this course delegates should have an understanding of:
Just wanted to say a huge thank you for today. It was not only a great MMP/RidgeStop course but a really interesting discussion on the subject of cruciate "repair" and meniscal injury.
Thank you for the extraordinary course in Glasgow. It was a really great weekend and I hope to attend another advanced spinal surgery course.
You guys are always great to me and I am very grateful and appreciative.
I enjoyed the course, intensive and informative
Thank you again for your help and support - you're always there when I need you
Everyone in the office are always so helpful - we know we can always rely on you
I came across the MMP course and decided to book and see if it was something we could do in practice. As the only vet in my practice able to carry out the procedure it has been reassuring to know there is someone at the end of the phone. I would not hesitate to recommend the MMP course.
The MMP kit has transformed our management of CCL failure cases and the PCA plate worked wonders in a 6 year old Border Collie with bilateral carpal hyperextension and advanced osteoarthritis secondary to immune-mediated polyarthritis - without it I doubt if that dog would still be here.
I have been working closely with Orthomed for the last three years. I am using RidgeStop™,
MMP, SOP™ and Castless PCA plating systems and achieving good outcomes. I find their
product range innovative and effective with a valuable technical and training support team to
back it up.
Since adopting the MMP as my preferred mode of treatment for ACL deficiency I have found all the products to be innovative, practical and very user friendly. Excellent customer service.
"We have over 100 MMP cases. I found the technique to be very easy to master and the outcomes excellent. Client satisfaction is 100% as almost all dogs are much improved at a 4 week post-op follow-up and many are sound at that point. Complications are few and support from the crew at Orthomed has always been prompt and helpful."
Norm Griggs, Shepherd Spring Animal Hospital
"Orthomed are my first choice of supplier when it comes to orthopaedic instruments and support. Their workshops and training are excellent and gave me complete confidence to carry out procedures for cruciate disease, patella luxation and also fracture repair. Their help and support has always been excellent"
Robin Stratton, Vets4Pets Accrington
"Having attended the Orthomed course I gained lots of confidence in the technique and was able to put it into practice immediately. It has been great for the practice to keep these procedures in-house. Clients are delighted. The after sales help has been amazing with advise on upcoming procedures and post operative radiographs. I'm looking forward to my next course."
Ben Orton, Black Notley Veterinary Surgery
"I have been using Orthomeds SOP plates for 8 years. They are an excellent adjunct to dynamic plate system and allow for locking applications with standard cortical screws. We have been primarily using the SOP TPLO plates and find them very easy to use and have reduced the incidence of "tibial rock back" as compared to standard TPLO plates"
Dr. Dan Degner, Animal Surgical Center, Michigan
The following leading experts lecture our workshops and use our products. Confirmation of who is teaching on the day will be determined closer to the date of the event.
Tickets can be purchased online in advance of the event. If you have any questions, please call us on +44 (0)845 045 0259
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[Theophilus Hunter Holmes: A North Carolina General in the Civil War by Walter C. Hilderman III (McFarland 800-253-2187, 2013). Softcover, maps, notes, appendices, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:197/230. ISBN:9780786473106 $35]
Latter day appreciation of Civil War generals typically centers on either their battlefield genius or administrative talent (rarely both), the latter encompassing a broad range of useful wartime skills such as political acumen, recruitment, subordinate talent recognition, and civil/military organization. Few knowledgeable persons will be willing to defend the generalship of Confederate Lieutenant General Theophilus Holmes, but author Walter Hilderman, in his new book Theophilus Hunter Holmes: A North Carolina General in the Civil War, argues that the high ranking Tarheel officer's leadership role in maximizing state manpower mobilization during 1864-65 makes his service deserving of greater recognition.
According to the author, Holmes left behind little in the way of personal papers and no postwar writings (though several manuscript collections located in Virginia and North Carolina archives are listed in the bibliography), making the task of the biographer difficult. In typical Civil War military biography fashion, Hilderman begins his study with Holmes's West Point years, moving from there to the young officer's early professional career, which was comprised of involvement in the Indian Removal affairs of the 1830s and fighting in the Seminole and Mexican-American wars. These sections do not provide a great deal in the way of details specific to Holmes, but rather more of a general discussion of events. In what fashion these earlier conflicts might have informed Holmes's Civil War service is not a source of serious speculation.
Significant new information related to Holmes's Virginia, North Carolina, and Arkansas commands is not apparent. Contemporary allegations that Holmes was tardy in moving toward Manassas, missing the 1861 battle, remain without foundation. The conventional criticisms surrounding the general's performance during the Seven Days have softened over time, and Hilderman finds himself in accordance with the view that poor army-level staff work and situational confusion emanating from the top were arguably more responsible for Holmes's perceived timidity on June 30 than the aging general's mental and physical limitations. His command grade was certainly no worse than any of a number of others with similar levels of responsibility on that day, or the next. Holmes's infamous deafness is not a source of additional inquiry in the book beyond the author's finding that no primary source exists for the "I thought I heard firing" quote so often repeated in the literature in mocking fashion. The chapters related to Holmes's department and district level leadership in the Trans-Mississippi during 1862-63, including his direction of the disastrous July 1863 assault on Helena, Arkansas, are conventional in content and analysis.
Hilderman's discussion of Holmes's unpopular time in Arkansas (mostly as a desk general) is not especially supportive of his study's thesis that Holmes rendered valuable administrative service to the Confederacy. Rather it is in North Carolina where this view is best reinforced. During the final twelve months of the war, Holmes was tasked with raising and organizing new state reserve forces. The intention behind such further robbing from the cradle and the grave was to use these formations to release regular Confederate garrison troops in North Carolina for more active service in Virginia, where they were direly needed. Hilderman, the author of a 2006 study of conscription in North Carolina, is well suited to document this aspect of the state's Civil War history, and it is indeed the best part of the book. With limited resources, Holmes was able to both enforce Confederate conscription in the state and mobilize Junior and Senior Reserve regiments numbering around 10,000 older men and boys. Their efficiency was mixed, but, given the inherent limitations, more could hardly be expected.
Recognizing the talents of subordinates, mentoring them, and actively promoting their career advancement is an important part of the job of high ranking military officers, and its clear from Hilderman's biography that Holmes took this responsibility seriously. Members of his staff, most notably James Deshler, became generals and Holmes repeatedly reminded Richmond authorities of the work of other talented individuals like Major Peter Mallett, who served under Holmes at Aquia Creek in 1861 and later successfully managed an entire network of conscription offices in North Carolina. An important benefit of Hilderman's study is that it should disabuse readers of the popular notion that Holmes was senile and devoid of any useful attributes. No one will take from Hilderman's biography a belief that Theophilus Holmes was a misunderstood gem of a Confederate general, but the book does provide the most fair minded assessment of the general's career yet published. Scholars of Confederate conscription will also find this study to be a useful tool.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Hilderman: "THEOPHILUS HUNTER HOLMES: A North Carolina General in the Civil War"
2 comments:
- John FoskettJanuary 18, 2014 at 8:11 AM
If Hilderman's research is reliable, it's a shame to cast that "I thought I heard firing" anecdote into the urban legend dustbin. Next somebody will tell us that the quote really came from Don Carlos Buell at Perryville.ReplyDelete
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Professional video security technology
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With Panomera, IP cameras, recording servers, intelligent video analysis and software, Dallmeier offers complete systems and high quality components which can be integrated easily into third party systems thanks to open interfaces (e.g. Onvif).
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The Panomera® lines differ primarily in light sensitivity and frame rate. The models within the individual series differ by the number of sensors they have and thus by their aperture angle and the distance up to which persons can be recognised or identified.


text:
Friday 25 January
|Tarsius (1)
The most notable feature of this extraordinary looking primate is its enormous eyes (2); tarsiers have the biggest eyes relative to their body weight of any mammal (4). As well as huge eyes, the Philippine tarsier has large, membranous ears set on its rounded head. It has short forelimbs, but greatly elongated hindlimbs, a feature which is reflected in this species name as tarsier refers to the elongated tarsal or ankle region (2). Its long digits culminate in rounded pads that provide the tarsier with effective grip on any surface. The fully opposable first toes also help the tarsier grip to slender branches (2). All the fingers and toes have flattened nails, except for the second and third toes which have claw-like nails used in grooming (2). The Philippine tarsier has wavy fur with a silky texture, ranging in colour on the upperparts from buff or greyish-brown to dark brown. The fur on the underparts is buff, greyish or slate (2). The tail is naked apart from a few short hairs on the tip, and is used as an extra support when clinging to an upright branch (2).
Philippine tarsiers are nocturnal animals that are also active at dusk and dawn (2). They spend the day sleeping in dense vegetation or occasionally in a hollow tree, and then as the sun sets, they begin their search for insect prey. Philippine tarsiers are agile acrobats of the forest, making vertical leaps from tree to tree with ease (2). Their head can rotate nearly 360°, and this, along with their enormous eyes, gives them an excellent field of vision (2). Once an insect is spotted, the Philippine tarsier will carefully adjust its position and focus, and then leap forward to seize the prey in both hands (2), their slender fingers creating a cage in which to hold flittering insects (4). During the hours the Philippine tarsier is awake, its thin ears are almost constantly being furled or crinkled (2).
Generally seen in pairs of a male and female, the Philippine tarsier gives birth to a single young. Incredibly, the well-developed young weigh 25 percent of the mother's weight, a greater percentage than any other mammal (4). These large babies are well-furred, have their eyes open (2) (4), and are immediately capable of climbing and making short hops, although full leaps are not undertaken until one month of age. As the mother moves around the trees, the young will cling to her abdomen or be carried in her mouth. At 42 days of age, the young Philippine tarsier begins to capture its own insects, and shortly after this it is weaned. In captivity, a Philippine tarsier lived for just over 13 years (2).
Endemic to the Philippines, where it occurs on the islands of Samar, Leyte, Dinagat, Siargao, Bohol, Mindanao, Maripipi and Basilan (1) (2).
The Philippine tarsier preferentially inhabits secondary forest, scrub, and clearings with thick vegetation, although it also been found in primary forest and mangroves (2).
The Philippine tarsier occurs in a number of protected areas (1), which are likely to mitigate the threat of habitat loss to the tarsier. It is also listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meaning that international trade in this species should be carefully monitored (3); however, the Philippine tarsier would undoubtedly benefit from further, tighter controls on hunting and trade (1).
For further information on conservation of the Philippine Tarsier see:
Image credit
© Pierre Fidenci / Endangered Species International
Endangered Species International
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San Francisco
United States of America
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PLEASE NOTE: PaTTAN has implemented a single-sign-on system for both the new website and our online registration system for events. If you already have a user name and password to register for trainings, use those same credentials here to login.
The following navigation utilizes arrow, enter, escape, and space bar key commands. Left and right arrows move through
main tier links and expand / close menus in sub tiers. Up and Down arrows will open main tier menus and toggle through
sub tier links. Enter and space open menus and escape closes them as well. Tab will move on to the next part of the
site rather than go through menu items.
Enhancing Core Reading Instruction (ECRI) within Tiered Systems (K-2)
Wednesday January 09, 2019 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Systematic strategies and instructional routines designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of reading instruction in kindergarten, first and second grade will be described and practiced. By the end of this course, participants will understand how and why (a) using instructional routines can enhance current core reading instruction, and (b) how aligning Tier 1 and Tier 2 reading instruction can lead to higher student reading outcomes. Topics will include incorporating explicit instructional elements, aligning intervention for at-risk readers with core instruction, and implementing instructional routines, during Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction, that focus on the essential components of beginning reading instruction.
Participants will be able to:
Carol Dissen, Jessica Surles
Kelly Kapp
Pam Kastner
This training series is aligned to the following core reading series: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – Journeys Common 2017, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – Journeys Common Core 2014, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – Journeys 2011, Scott Foresman – Reading Street Common Core 2013, Scott Foresman –
Reading Street 2011, Pearson – ReadyGEN 2014, McGraw-Hill – Wonders 2014 and Wonders 2017.
The cost of materials required for this series is $580 (820 if Leadership materials are appropriate for your position). This cost includes the following materials based on your position: For the Classroom Teacher- the Teacher Workbook + Tier 1 Core program aligned lesson at a grade level; For the Interventionist - Teacher Workbook + Tier 2 Core program aligned lesson at a grade level; For Leadership – One of the aforementioned kits + Leadership Guide.
The first 33 LEA staff registrants who commit to and attend the entire 5-day training series, will have the cost of the training waived. To be eligible for this waiver, you must:
1) be one of the first 33 LEA staff registrants,
2) submit a check for the amount of $ 580 ($820 if Leadership Guide also needed)
3) Sign an agreement stating that you understand the waiver requirement of attending all 5 days of the series
4) Attend all 5 days. If those requirements are fulfilled the unprocessed check will be returned to you.


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The scope of the work in 2011 is the elaboration of a concrete, ambitious but realistic, Pan-European roadmaps in 5 areas for the completion of the internal energy market by 2014 through identifying the important milestones (including the initial geographical scope of the project, its likely future extensions, public consultations and regulatory steps), deadlines and respective accountabilities for:
AESAG is chaired by ACER and composed of representatives from European level energy stakeholder organisations as well as national regulatory authorities and the European Commission:
AESAG builds upon the work undertaken by the Ad Hoc Advisory Group (AHAG) which monitored and coordinated the development projecets to carry forward the implementation of the target model for electricity capacity allocation and congestion management (CACM) and balancing agreed by the Project Coordination Group (PCG).
AESAG Terms of Reference
Agency for the Cooperationof Energy Regulators
Trg republike 3
1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
tel. +386 (0) 8 205 34 00fax +386 (0) 8 205 34 13
Comments and feedback
© Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, 2019.


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Epping Police Department via AP
This series of booking photos shows Joyce Coffey after being arrested four times in 26 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Joyce Coffey of Epping, N.H., just didn't seem to get it -- or care -- when she was arrested four times in 26 hours earlier this week. The police run-ins stemmed from loud AC/DC and Guns N' Roses music police said could be heard blasting from her house as well as Coffey allegedly throwing a frying pan at her nephew.
Epping police said they first visited Coffey's home on Tuesday at 3 p.m. local time, when they warned her to turn down the music, WMUR-TV in New Hampshire reported. They returned an hour later, found the music was still playing, and arrested her.
Coffey, 53, was released on $500 personal recognizance bail, the Manchester Union Leader reported, but police returned to her home about five hours later -- again because of a report about loud music.
She was arrested a second time around 9:20 p.m.
Coffey was then released on $1,000 bail, but a mere four hours later, after yet another loud music complaint, the police returned at 1:10 a.m. Wednesday.
She was at this point arrested for a third time -- and released a short time later on $10,000 bail.
Police said they heard AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" as well as music by the group Guns N' Roses coming from Coffey's home during their first four visits, reported WMUR.
The final call to Coffey's home was for a report of a domestic disturbance. Police said Coffey's nephew alleged she threw a frying pan at him, hitting him in the head, when he tried to get some of his belongings from her house.
She was arrested a fourth, and on Thursday a judge ordered her to undergo a mental health evaluation.
If she completes the evaluation, the judge said, she will be released to home confinement with electronic monitoring.
The judge also suggested that Coffey, who is due back in court on Oct. 15, use headphones to listen to music, WMUR reported.
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Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook


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In the last few posts I have enhanced to support for camera RAW to CineForm RAW conversions, and this feature was released as part of the Windows Neo4K or Neo3D builds yesterday (Dec 09, 2010.) The DPX2CF tool itself has since undergone one more update to support stereo conversions of RAW sources.
DPX2CF v6.02 Download (replace in C:\Program Files (x86)\CineForm\Tools)
The syntax for raw sources is just like it is for stereo DPX conversions.
For separate folders:
DPX2CF leftDir/*.DNG rightDir/*.DNG outDir/stereo.avi
or unique left/right eye naming:
DPX2CF path/*L.CR2 path/*R.CR2 outDir/stereo.mov
There is also a new stereo mode for sequences that a capture L,R,L,R,... or R,L,R,L..., for single camera motion controlled rigs. The switch -sL set Left eye first or -sR the right eye. Notice that the sample source path is used twice:
DPX2CF path/*.CR2 path/*.CR2 outDir/stereo.mov -sL
Note: There were a couple of minor bug fixes and also the new the ability to window the pixels you want. So if you only need the center 4K form a 5.2K RAW file, you do this:
DPX2CF path/*.CR2 outDir/clip.mov -sL -L(600,100,4696,2404)


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I have long championed the old BBC Austen adaptations, produced in the 70s and 80s. I was so fortunate as to receive the pictured box set several years ago as a Christmas gift, and since I have watched these films time and time again. Now, if you require beautiful cinematography and have no tolerance for this style of old, made for TV literary adaptation, which admittedly tend to be long, move slowly, and are hampered by unfortunate production quality, then no amount of praise from me will help you find enjoyment in these movies. You will lose your patience. But for me, it is precisely such attributes that make these versions feel a little more true to Austen. There is a quietness to the old adaptations, incompatible with the glossy and dramatic versions made over the last quarter of a century, that better conveys the atmosphere of her books. Not that I don't adore the newer movies - they're (mostly) phenomenal - but these are excellent too, and should not be forgotten. In some cases, I have yet to see a version I prefer. So here is a brief intro to and scene from each film. When I've written them, I've included links to reviews. Unfortunately, the quality issues sometime appear worse than usual in the clips, due to the quality of the recordings, but they still provide a taste of each film.
Sense and Sensibility, 1981
I believe Sense and Sensibility translates to film particularly well, and all the versions I have ever seen of it are quite good. I'm not sure why this version was included in the box set instead of the 1971 version (it features Joanna David as a wonderful Elinor, familiar to Janeites from her portrayal of Mrs. Gardiner in Pride and Prejudice, 1995, and a fabulous performance by British TV icon Patricia Routledge as Mrs. Jennings). Both versions leave out Margaret Dashwood entirely out of the script, which I find problematic.
The 1981 adaptation stars Irene Richards as Elinor Dashwood (also Charlotte Collins in the 1980 Pride and Prejudice), Marianne is played by Tracey Childs, Bosco Hogan is Edward Ferrars, and Robert Swann is Colonel Brandon, but none of these actors are in the clip below. Instead, I have chosen a scene dominated by Amanda Boxer, who portrays Fanny Dashwood. She is my favorite actress in this role. Throughout the film she is odiously smug and collected, and to see her lose it on Anne Steele (Pippa Sparkes) is hysterical. Often film makers forget that Austen is, first and foremost, a comic writer, and I really appreciate it when they pay homage to her love of absurdity and amusement in human folly. Also featured are Julia Chambers (who is fabulous) as Lucy Steele, and Peter Gale as John Dashwood.
Pride and Prejudice, 1980
I think it is fair to claim that this is the most beloved film in the collection. Many Janeites continue to prefer this version of Pride and Prejudice to the more acclaimed, recent versions. I think that's because Elizabeth Garvie is so good as Elizabeth Bennet, and David Rintoul, while a bit stiff, just looks perfect as Darcy. Also, because the story has been less, um, sensationalized (no wet shirts here), it comes off as the coziest of the Pride and Prejudice adaptations available.
The scene below is the party at Lucas Lodge and features Irene Richards as Charlotte (since we missed her in action as Elinor). We also get quick glimpses of Tessa Peake-Jones as Mary Bennet (my favorite Mary!) and Priscilla Morgan as Mrs. Bennet
Mansfield Park, 1983
This is by far and away my preferred Mansfield Park, and for that reason alone is enough to make it my favorite film in the boxset. There are only three versions of Mansfield Park, and both the more recent films make the fundamental mistake of trying to fix the novel. This is the only one that honestly attempts to capture the true story, and Sylvestra Le Touzal (who also played Mrs. Allen in the excellent 2007 version of Northanger Abbey) is the only actress to have portrayed the real Fanny Price on screen. She is supported by Nicholas Farrell as Edmund Bertram. Both are in the featured clip, along with Bernard Hepton as Sir Thomas (he was also Mr. Woodhouse in Andrew Davies' 1996 Emma), and my favorite performers in this production: Anna Massey as Aunt Norris and Angela Pleasence as Lady Bertram. This clip has fun with both, in which Fanny has been invited to her first dinner party at the Grant's.
Emma, 1972
I really love this one, despite the fact that I think all three of the more recent versions of Emma are better. For whatever reason, I've consistently watched it more often than the other films in the boxset. Part of it, I think, is that like Sense and Sensibility, Emma works very well on film. Highlights of this version include Mollie Sugden (best known as Mrs. Slocombe on Are You Being Served?) as Mrs. Goddard, and my favorite Mr. Woodhouse, Donald Eccles, who is fabulously nervous. The below clip shows Emma (Doran Godwin) and Harriet Smith (Debbie Bowen) paying their first, introductory call on the new Mrs. Elton (Fiona Walker). This moment is only mentioned in the book, and the dialogue actually comes from Mrs. Elton's return call on Hartfield. The end of the scene isn't in Austen at all, but it is quite amusing, nonetheless. Mr. Elton is played by Timothy Peters. Mr. Knightley, unfortunately not featured here, is excellently captured by John Carson.
Persuasion, 1971
This is my favorite Persuasion adaptation. It isn't perfect, but unlike both more recent versions, it does not rely on Austen's cancelled chapters of the story for plot. This really bothers me! It pains me there isn't a better, yet still accurate, film adaptation of my favorite Austen novel. So when I want to watch Persuasion, this is my go to, for it causes the least frustration.
Anne Elliot is played by Ann Firbanks, and Bryan Marshall is Captain Wentworth (though it appears to be Robert Swann - Col. Brandon from Sense & Sensibility - on the DVD cover. Such quirks I suppose to be part of the experience). The moment is when Wentworth writes and Anne receives THE LETTER. I chose it because it is almost verbatim from the book, giving viewers the opportunity to relish the complexity of the scene as Austen wrote it, and because Anne (thank goodness!) does not take to the streets of Bath and run about like a madwoman. I find that immensely gratifying. Also featured are Georgine Anderson as Mrs. Croft, Noel Dyson as Mrs. Musgrove, and Michael Culver as Captain Harville.
Northanger Abbey, 1987
Easily the strangest Austen adaptation ever made, the 1986 version of Northanger Abbey doesn't really fit with the other films in this boxset. It is by far the shortest (only 78 minutes), and it wildly diverges from the novel, playing up it's gothic aspects. A source of both outrage and fascination for fans, it is something you should really see at least once, if for no other reason than to join the debate. Also, Northanger Abbey has only ever been made into a movie twice. For those long horrified by this version, the 2007 film is so magnificent that they might like to forget this one ever existed. I think that's a mistake. Especially now that we have a much more accurate adaptation to cling to, I can appreciate this film for just being so darn bizarre.
The below scene is an example of this outlandishness. Instead of the Pump Room, it takes place inside the King's Bath (read my review for more history/explanation on the craziness here portrayed). You only see Mr. Tilney (Peter Firth) for a moment at the very beginning. In the baths are Catherine Morland (played by Katharine Schlesinger), Mrs. Allen (Googie Withers), Miss Tilney (Ingrid Lacey), and a most skin crawling duo: Cassie Stuart and Jonathan Coy as Isabella and John Thorpe. If you thought they were bad in the book, they are absolutely revolting here. The 80s-gone-18th century coiffures are marvelously awful. Actually, the whole film might be worth watching for the crazy head gear alone, which is on incongruous display below.
Have you seen and enjoyed (or hated) these films? I'd love to read your thoughts. Do share them.


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TSA inspectors with drug-sniffing dogs patrol platforms
Paul Joseph Watson
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Footage shot at the Oceanside Transit Center in Southern California documents how the rollout of TSA workers is expanding out of the airports and into train stations and bus terminals.
The clip shows TSA inspectors standing with police and drug-sniffing dogs. The TSA agents told the film maker that he was still allowed to take video and photos at the train station but may get "questioned" for doing so.
There were about six or seven TSA agents patrolling the station according to the uploader of the video.
The Transportation Security Administration was embarrassed earlier this year when Houstonians revolted over a program that would have seen TSA workers routinely ride city buses in the name of spotting terrorists and criminals.
During a trial of the program, bus passengers were harassed and interrogated by TSA workers, prompting a backlash and an anger-filled public meeting during which residents expressed resentment about being asked questions about their journey and having their bags searched.
"The good citizens of Houston are not stupid enough to believe Metro was actually expecting to find terrorists at a bus stop here. Instead, it was used as a pretext to harass people," said Robert Fickman, past president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, adding that the exercise was clearly unconstitutional.
Although Police Chief Victor Rodriguez hinted that the program may return, the furious reaction of travelers has thus far prevented TSA workers from riding Houston buses since the exercise.
However, the agency itself is expanding, with Congress recently giving the green light for extra funding that has increased the number of unannounced TSA checkpoints beyond the 9300 that took place last year.
This $25 million dollar injection has helped fund the expansion of the VIPR program which has TSA agents patrolling highways, train stations, bus terminals and other transport hubs.
As a whistleblower recently revealed to Infowars, more TSA workers are also being used in airports at locations besides security lanes.
"We're doing patrols in the parking lot with dogs, we're even going as far out to the train station because the train station is connected to the airport here and we have guys walking around the train station, walking around the rental cars, we're inspecting cars coming into the parking garage, I mean we've fully expanded – we're no longer just at the gate and just at the security checkpoint," said the whistleblower, a TSA supervisor.
The use of TSA workers to search train passengers has proved highly controversial in the past. In one instance TSA agents were used to conduct pat downs of passengers, including children, who had already completed their journey when arriving in Savannah.
Watch the clip below.
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!


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KW Variant 2 Coilover Kit
To Fit:
Alfa Romeo 156; (932) Saloon, Sportwagon (from Sep 1997 onwards)
KW Inox Variant 2 Coilover Kits provide sporty handling with adjustable rebound damping. It is intended for the experienced driver who does not only wish to determine the individual lowering of his vehicle, but also wishes to carry out setup adjustments. The adjustable rebound damper allows you to adjust the pitch and roll behaviour of the vehicle and therefore driving pleasure can be adapted to your own requirements.
As with all KW coilovers their engineers develop vehicle specific damper settings which undergo comprehensive test cycles at the Nürburgring and on KW's 7-post driving dynamic centre. With a KW coilover kit the driving experience is more dynamic and direct; and with the rebound adjustability of KW Variant 2 coilovers you can have even more influence over the handling and comfort of the car. With 16 precise click you can adjust the KW dampers (from firmer to more comfortable).
The rebound valves of the KW twin-tube dampers are either adjusted at the upper end of the piston rod with an integrated adjustment wheel or a twist-adjuster (that will be included with the kit). By increasing the rebound force the body movements are reduced; your car will stay in line and you will have more stability at increased corner speed.
A KW Variant 2 Coilover Kit is also the perfect choice for someone looking to put larger wheels and tyres on their vehicle. With a KW Coilover Variant 2 Coilover Kit you will be able to adjust the car's handling so that it works perfectly with your larger wheels.
At KW's headquarters in Fichtenberg each KW Coilover Variant 2 kit is subject to extensive stress tests during production to meet the high standards of KW's quality management. Every single damper and suspension kit is tested thoroughly. Each kit includes a 2 year warranty. KW coilover struts are 100% rust-free and have an unlimited lifetime under all weather conditions - all parts are designed for long term use.
- Rebound adjustable damper technology with 16 precise clicks
- Stainless steel technology "inox-line"
- Adjustment parameters approved by the German Technical Control Board (TÜV)
- Ready to install, complete solution
- High quality components for a long life
- Complete documentation for an easy installation
Tailor made for your car, this KW Variant 2 Coilover Kit needs to be fitted at a professional workshop. Most of our Outlets will be able to offer a fitting service for this product - please contact your local Outlet to find out more.
Estimated between Thu 8th - Thu 15th Oct 2020
Deliveries are made Monday to Friday and exclude weekends and public holidays.
We have an order cut-off time of 1PM on the days that we are open. Our estimated delivery date takes this into account.
If it is available, we will provide tracking information by email.
|Select Your Location:
|Delivery Cost:
Do you live outside of Europe? For an international delivery quote please click here to request a carriage quote.
If you are ordering multiple items your total postage charge will be reduced. Please check your basket for the total cost.
- Axle Load Rating Front: 990kg
- Axle Load Rating Rear: 980kg
- Lowering Front: 35-65mm
- Lowering Rear: 35-65mm
- Please note that the image shown is for illustrative purposes only
- This price is for a set
- Power: 77-141kW
- Height adjustable on the front and rear axles (threaded strut housings)
- Specific damping variants only available while stocks last. For further information please send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com
Why Choose Carnoisseur?
- We've been trading for over 35 years!
- We have Outlets throughout the U.K. and Ireland, run by enthusiasts, that offer face to face advice and fitting facilities.
- We keep hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of stock to ensure the fastest possible delivery of product to our customers.
- We are constantly reviewing our pricing to ensure that our customers get the best deal - click here to find out more about our Price Promise.
Ordering from us is easy
- Order online by adding products to the basket and proceeding to the checkout.
- Order by phone - call 01582 787377
- Order from your local Carnoisseur Outlet - click here to find your nearest Outlet.
Fitting Service
Remember, most of our Outlets offer a fitting service. If you would like a product fitting please contact your nearest Outlet directly.
Full details of the services each Outlet offers are shown on their page - click here to find your nearest Outlet.


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Global Fashion Awards Short List Party
This is the third annual WGSN Global Fashion Awards. I'm very honoured to be one of the judges (it's my third season as a judge). Listed below are the nominees in my favourite categories for the short list. The final winners will be announced in London at the Savoy on November 5th, 2012. Emerging DesignerContinue reading


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2700 S Las Vegas Bl #505
- Favorites
This 876 square foot condo features 1 bedrooms and 1 bathrooms.
It is located in the tower of Sky Las Vegas in Las Vegas on 2700 S Las Vegas Bl #505. The MLS number is 1091465 and the parcel number is 162-09-616-009.
This listing became available on 10-29-2010 and was leased on 12-29-2010 for $1,495.
The full public address for this listing is 2700 S Las Vegas Bl #505, Las Vegas, Nevada 89109.
The Details
The Neighborhood
The Numbers
Comparables - Single Family Rentals
2700 S Las Vegas Bl #505, Las Vegas, Nevada 89109 is a courtesy listing of Helen Michel at Elite Realty.
The data relating to real estate for sale on this web site comes in part from the INTERNET DATA EXCHANGE Program of the Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS® MLS. Real estate listings held by brokerage firms other than this site owner are marked with the IDX logo. GLVAR deems information reliable but not guaranteed.
Copyright 2020 of the Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS® MLS. All rights reserved.
The information being provided is for the consumers' personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties consumers may be interested in purchasing.


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WordTornado - Game information
Objective of the game:
WordTornado is the word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Try to make use of the different word and letter values to score even more points. The winner is the one who has accumulated most points by the end of the game.
Basic rules of the game:
1. Place the tiles on the game board to form a word.
2. The first word must be placed with one of its letters on the star in the middle of the board.
3. Create new words by linking these words vertically or horizontally with already placed tiles.
4. The game ends when all tiles are placed, or when both players pass a turn two rounds in a row. You can pass a turn by pressing the play button without placing a word on the board.
5. Be aware that empty tiles are jokers. You activate the joker by placing it on the board, double clicking it and choosing any letter you want
At the start of the game and during the game you can choose to include three perks in your game:
- Word Quality: A meter which indicates the strength of the word you want to play.
- Tile Bag: A view inside the tile bag so you'll be able to see which tiles are left.
- Word Score: A chance to view how many points your word will score before you place it permanently on the board.


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Pwn2Own: game over for Apple
As usual Apple was crushed in the Pwn2Own, a computer security contest.
Read more...
As usual Apple was crushed in the Pwn2Own, a computer security contest.
Posted by: Mario 5 Comments
Today I talk, again, about MegaVideo and MegaUpload. In my previous posts I told about how to watch MegaVideo without 72 minute limit, but often I'm not connect to Internet (e.g. long travel by train or by airplane) and I download video.
Without a Premium Account download video from MegaVideo is not easy and you have find the MegaUpload's link of video, but often this link is not available.
Recently, a friend told me about jDownloader. JDownloader is a small java application, therefore runnable on Windows, Mac and Linux, very useful. In fact, JDownloader can download file from MegaVideo and MegaUpload automatically without limits and without that you have insert manually the captcha.
How to use JDownloader:
Automatically the link is imported in program:
4. Click on play to start to download the file.
The powerful of this application is that you can add many files and it automatically downloads they.
In particular, if you want download file from MegaUpload, the program automatically detects the captcha. So, you can add all files that you want and go out, when you return at home all files will be downloaded.
The program has many other features: management of pause and of resume of downloads, management of premium account,….In other you can use it with many other host sites.
Thanks to the creator of this program and thanks to the power of Java ;-).
Posted by: Matteo V. 9 Comments
Tags: Download Manager, Dr. House, File Sharing, Film, jDownloader, Megaupload, Megavideo, streaming
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Source: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/dash/recipes.html
16 small new potatoes (5 cups)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup green onions, chopped
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dill weed, dried
Thoroughly clean potatoes with vegetable brush and water.
Boil potatoes for 20 minutes or until tender.
Drain and cool potatoes for 20 minutes.
Cut potatoes into quarters and mix with olive oil, onions, and spices.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Makes 5 servings
Serving Size: 1 cup
Per Serving:
Calories: 196
Total Fat: 6 g
Saturated Fat: 1 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 17 mg
Protein: 4 g
Carbohydrate: 34 g
Calcium: 31 mg
Magnesium: 46 mg
Potassium: 861 mg
Fiber: 4 g
*DISCLAIMER*: The information contained in or provided through this site section is intended for general consumer understanding and education only and is not intended to be and is not a substitute for professional advice. Use of this site section and any information contained on or provided through this site section is at your own risk and any information contained on or provided through this site section is provided on an "as is" basis without any representations or warranties.